Noise Levels in 06089, CT | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
48 dBA
Average noise across 06089
Quiet office
281
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
8% of 06089 residents
65 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 06089 at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
Colorblind friendlyoff
What the numbers sound like
30 dBAWhisper
40 dBASoft rainfall
45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
50 dBAQuiet office
55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
65 dBABusy restaurant
70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
80 dBACity bus interior
Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold
The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 281 06089 residents, or 7.7%, live above that level. By land area, 11.9% of 06089 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 06089 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 06089. Southern 06089 carries the highest population-weighted average; Central 06089 carries the lowest. Just 2% of residents in Central 06089 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Southern 06089.
Central 06089
44.0 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
2% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 06089
48.6 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
24% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 06089
47.7 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
4% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 06089
49.1 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
9% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 06089
47.2 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
12% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 06089 sounds about 42% louder than Central 06089 to the human ear, a 5.1 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.
How far back from Latimer La do you need to be?
Latimer La produces an estimated 53 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a soft rainfall.
At source
53 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
165 ft
38 dBA
Soft rainfall
330 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 66% of 06089 sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most zip codes) and roughly 12% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Airport Noise
Bradley International (BDL) sits northeast of 06089. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of 06089, particularly to the southwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across 06089
The bar chart below shows the share of 06089 residents in each noise band. About 97% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 06089 Compares
06089 sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how 06089's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 06092, 06063, 06026, and 06093.
Average noise level (dBA)
06089's 47.7 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Connecticut as a whole averages 51.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 06089 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 7.7% of 06089 residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 11.9% of 06089's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Connecticut average of 27.3% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to 06089
Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from Latimer La and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 66% of 06089 is under tree cover (much heavier than most zip codes), and the dominant land cover is low-density developed open space. Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
Airport noise is directional. Bradley International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northeast. Neighborhoods to the southwest of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
